Organist Tom Trenney returning to familiar organ for Painesville United Methodist Church anniversary

By
Janet Podolak, The News-Herald

Friday, September 13, 2013

When organist Tom Trenney sits down at the 2,871-pipe Schantz organ dominating Painesville United Methodist Church for him it will be like coming home.
Now a nationally known concert organist based in Nebraska, he’ll play a 75-minute concert on Sept. 20 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the organ’s dedication and the restoration of the church’s sanctuary.
“I remember that dedication so well,” he said. “Painesville Methodist was my home church, and I practiced on their organ many years as a boy.”
Trenney, 36, was considered a child prodigy when he began playing piano well before his 4th birthday.
Neither of his parents played, but they had an old upright piano in their Perry Township home.
“One day, when he was about 3-and-a-half, Tom sat down at the piano and played ‘When the Saints Come Marching In,’” recalled his astonished mother, Beverly Trenney. Wishing to nurture his talent, his parents signed him up for Suzuki piano lessons at the Fine Arts Association in Willoughby. That instruction is based upon learning by ear.
By 13, Trenney was serving as organist for St. Luke’s Church in Chardon.
He was in fourth grade when he joined the St. James Episcopal Church Men and Boys Choir, which sang Handel’s Messiah.
“By singing grown up music I got bitten by the music bug,” he recalled.
Song infused his soul and caused him to become committed a life as a church musician.
Today he’s minister of music at First Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Neb., and he teaches choir at nearby Doane College. The church has an organ more than twice as large asthe Schantz at Painesville United Methodist.
“A good organist plays with the entire body,” said Robert Brown, one of three organists on staff at Painesville United Methodist Church.
When he talks of Trenney, Brown said Trenney grabs the console to hold himself down as both feet the organ’s pedals and toe pistons with the same speed as his hands fly over the keyboard.
“I don’t play to grab attention,” said Trenney.
As he teaches his choir: “Our body, mind and spirit must be involved for our spirit to sing out.
“It feel like the organ becomes a part of me.”
In considering his relationship with the Schantz organ at Painesville United Methodist, he said, “I love this organ like an old friend and can pick up right where I left off. You remember the good and let go of the bad. Each of them is different, but I absolutely have a relationship with the organs I play.”
He’ll arrive a couple days early so he can practice for the concert.
His mother said he always was very self-disciplined about practicing, even as a very young child.
”You don’t just practice to learn,” Trenney said. “You do it to make yourself a musician.”
Being a child prodigy left Trenney no desire to rest on his laurels of being a very, very talented kid.
He said life has taught him that having talent is an entry point.
“It takes discipline, commitment and courage to maintain a lifelong process of growing into the fullness of whatever talent we’ve been given, to make us count,” he said.
He’ll begin his concert on Friday with some of the pieces played by internationally known organist Diane Bish who came to play when the organ was dedicated 20 years ago. He’ll also play the “Carillon de Westminster,” an improvisational piece written by turn-of-the-last century organist Louis Vierne, who presided at Notre Dame in Paris. And he’ll conclude his concert with an improvisation he calls “44077” — named after Painesville’s ZIP code.
“It will have themes meaningful to people from town and the church and meaningful to me and my relationships with the church,” he said.
A dessert reception will follow his concert.
The church celebration will continue on Sept. 21, when Painesville United Methodist staff organists — Mary Brown, Robert Brown and Jerry Marshall — present a concert at 7:30 p.m. accompanied by the local brass quintet Heritage Brass. Preceding that concert will be an hors d’oeuvres reception at 6:30 p.m.
The weekend concludes with a 10 a.m. service on Sunday, followed by a ticket-only brunch.
The 140-year-old church on the Painesville Square at 71 Park Place has been led since 1986 by the Rev. Gerald D. Kalb. Its congregation numbers about 1,300, and it seats 650 in its sanctuary, the popular location for an annual winter concert series inaugurated by Tom Trenney. The upcoming celebratory concerts will kick off the 2013-14 concert series, which will include performances by Apollo’s Fire, the Burning River Brass and Todd Wilson, curator of the organ at Severance Hall in Cleveland. All concerts are free, but a goodwill offering is gratefully accepted, Kalb said.